The Commencement Order ensures that decisions on referendums and local plans made under the existing the planning regime would still be valid under the new regime. Without the transitional arrangements, development plans that had been the subject of examination and modification by an Inspector under the current regime would have been prevented from being adopted by authorities under the new regime.
The “transitional and saving provision” states that “where, before 15th January 2012, the person appointed to carry out the independent examination of a development plan document under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 recommends modifications to such a document those modifications are to be treated as the main modifications.”
The Localism Act is part of Government planning reforms and will be implemented in phases. The first phase took place in November 2011, and the second on 15 January, in advance of more substantive provisions that are expected to be brought into force in April 2012.
